The Destructive Impact of Desire and Hate in Robert Frost's “Fire and Ice” Robert Frost is one of the most well renowned American poets. He is viewed favorably due to his strong imagery, and he accurately depicts common rural happenings. One poem of Frost's strays from this common topics, and this poem is “Fire and Ice”. In this poem Frost discusses the means by which the world may end. He discusses the power of the elements and how two elements in particular would both suffice in the destruction of the earth. Frost uses the metaphors of “fire” and “ice” to convey his message; he proves that desire and hate are the two most powerful emotions capable of bringing life to an end. The power of ¨fire¨ is conveyed perfectly by Frost. In the piece …show more content…
The narrator appears to be more afraid of the emotions associated with fire, and would disregard the ice and its possibly detrimental effects. Frost details ice when he says, ¨I think I know enough of hate/ To say that for destruction ice/ Is also great/ And would suffice¨ (Frost 6-9). Ice is a metaphor for hate and cold emotions such as detachment. When receiving hatred or detachment one will often be given the ¨cold shoulder;¨ hatred is a ¨cold emotion¨ and it is only fitting that Frost would associate it with a world ending in ice. Hate has the power to end more than just the world; in fact, the world is most likely a metaphor for an individual's goals. This is proven by Deirdre Fagan of Bloom's Literature when she states, ¨Frost is not imaging an end to the world in general but rather seeing a broader scope of endings… in things closer to the human heart, such as relationships or love affairs.¨(Fagan). Hatred is powerful enough to end and individuals world; it has the power to end hopes, dreams, and even relationships. Hatred is often the first thing to occur when thinking of destruction, yet Frost lists it as the least likely to destroy the world. This is because the sting of hatred hurts much less than that of desire. Hate is an innate emotion and it is near impossible for reason to reign its power. Hate decreases one's awareness of what is right and what is wrong; since this is the case, hate too has the
The last poem “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost is about the end of the world. The use of the word “I” in the poem makes it appear to be Frost himself who is narrating this poem. This poem is more sing song in nature than the other poems because of its use of rhyme words like “fire”, “desire”, “twice”, “ice”, and “suffice” (cite poem p. 369). There is alliteration with the phrase “favor fire” (cite poem p 369). There is an implied reference to hell being the “fire” that would be brought on by “desire” or sin. The picture of the atomic bomb certainly adds to the word
As characters in the poem are literally snow bound, they find that the natural occurrence actually serves a relaxing and warming purpose, one that brings together family. This effect is further achieved through the use of meter throughout the work as a whole. In its simplistic yet conversational tone, the author uses meter to depict the result that nature has forced upon these humans, who are but a small sample size that actually is representative of society that that time. Due to nature, the characters can talk, represented by the conversational meter, and thus, they can bond within the family. A larger representation of this more specific example can be applied to a more general perspective of human’s relationship with the natural world. Although “Snowbound” captures what humans do as a result of nature, it can also represent a larger picture, where nature appears at the most opportune times to enhance relationships from human to human. In “snowbound,” this is symbolized by the fire, “Our warm hearth seemed blazing free” (Whittier 135). This image relays a spirited, warm, mood full of security, which is expertly used by the author to show how fire, a natural phenomena, can provide such beneficial effects on humans. This very occurrence exemplifies how such a miniscule aspect of nature can have such a profound effect on a family, leaving the reader wondering what nature and its entirety could accomplish if used as a
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words,” Robert Frost once said. As is made fairly obvious by this quote, Frost was an adroit thinker. It seems like he spent much of his life thinking about the little things. He often pondered the meaning and symbolism of things he found in nature. Many readers find Robert Frost’s poems to be straightforward, yet his work contains deeper layers of complexity beneath the surface. His poems are not what they seem to be at first glance. These deeper layers of complexity can be clearly seen in his poems “The Road Not Taken”, “Fire and Ice”, and “Birches”.
The poem Fire and Ice is nine line long and is an example of a briefly ironic literary style of Frosts work. Fire and Ice ranges between two meter lengths. The poem uses interwoven rhymes founded on “ire,” “ice,” and “ate.” Although the meter is irregular it does keep up an iambic foot throughout the poem. The first line of the poem is a tetrameter followed by a dimeter which is followed by five line of tetrameter, ending with two lines of dimeter. The division of the line lengths is to render natural interruptions in the poem causing the reader to stop and reread what they have just read in order to comprehend the meaning of the lines containing the dimeter. For example when the reader reads “ Some say in ice” they go back to the first line of the poem to reread the topic of what some are saying about the end of the world. The rhyme scheme of “Fire and Ice” is ABAABCBCB style. The words “fire” and “ice” are being rhymed with themselves. By using this scheme it means that the poem falls soundly and flows. By using the rhyme scheme Frosts creates a connection between the words. For example “fire” and “desire,” which make it clear that the words are related on a deeper level. As well the rhyming of “fire” and “ice” with themselves made it work to cre...
He merely commits to writing a deliberation of what he understands to be a reality, however tragic. The affliction of dissatisfaction that Frost suffers from cannot be treated in any tangible way. Frost's response is to refuse to silently buckle to the seemingly sadistic ways of the world. He attacks the culprit of aging, the only way one can attack the enigmatic forces of the universe, by naming it as the tragedy that it is.
...ire, some say in ice”. One thing is we don’t know when the world will end but it will be by one or the other scientists say. The world truly doesn’t know how long it will end it is no time soon. The author is talking about the end of the world so freely without emotion, like it’s inevitable. The symbolic fire and ice meaning varies between different types of people whom remind the author of these elements. The fire we know and think about is a bringer of Light and heat but as well as pain and burning. Ice is ignorance and cold hate sort of feel to it. Fire and Ice have such deep meanings because it’s like the type of people you will encounter every day in life. The poem makes you relive all the times the world was going to allegedly end. What a symbol Fire and Ice is being used to represent is the end of times. This symbolic poem was like a vague prediction of sort.
Frost realizes that had he taken the other road he would not be where he is today. He was adventurous and choose the road that had been traveled the least recently and that one decision changed his life
...fall of snow and the unremitting “sweep” of “easy wind” appear tragically indifferent to life, in turn stressing the value of Poirier’s assessment of the poem. Frost uses metaphor in a way that gives meaning to simple actions, perhaps exploring his own insecurities before nature by setting the poem amongst a tempest of “dark” sentiments. Like a metaphor for the workings of the human mind, the pull between the “promises” the traveller should keep and the lure of death remains palpably relevant to modern life. The multitudes of readings opened up through the ambiguity of metaphor allows for a setting of pronounced liminality; between life and death, “night and day, storm and heath, nature and culture, individual and group, freedom and responsibility,” Frost challenges his readers to delve deep into the subtlety of tone and come to a very personal conclusion.
...ed by many scholars as his best work. It is through his awareness of the merit, the definitive disconnectedness, of nature and man that is most viewable in this poem. Throughout this essay, Frosts messages of innocence, evil, and design by deific intrusion reverberate true to his own personal standpoint of man and nature. It is in this, that Frost expresses the ideology of a benign deity.
After reading this poem and being quite confused by it, I was determined to find out what it meant. Its simplicity is misleading because it can represent several opposites in the world today that correspond to fire and ice. To begin my understanding of the poem, I decided to answer some questions. First question was who is some? Some represents humans, which is not difficult to understand, but then some can also represent lovers. This poem is mainly about desire and hate. In the poem, fire represents desire and ice represents hate. The first theory of fire most likely came from the bible, which describes the world ending this way and the second theory of ice is the scientific theory of the world freezing over when the sun burns out. Knowing these theories was somewhat useful, but did not really aid in understanding Frost's opinion on which would make for a better end.
According to John F. Lynen, “Frost sees in nature a symbol of man’s relation to the world. Though he writes about a forest or a wildflower, his real subject is humanity…his concept of nature…is a paradox and it points toward the greater paradox in man himself” (4,5).
...us hate through the symbols of fire and ice. The narrator chooses fire over ice because it’s the most relatable for them and is, in his or her mind, preferable to the hate and coldness of ice. The narrator in “The Road Not Taken” also makes a decision based on how the choices presented relate to them. They chose to be an individual and not to shape their life around someone else’s decision. “Fire and Ice” is, at a deeper level, also very different from “The Road Not Taken” because it presents two specific choices that both lead to the same end while “The Road Not Taken” opens up the possibility for endless paths and decisions with an unknown result. Regardless of where the poems guide the narrator, Frost makes it clear that our decisions affect who we are, but also opens up speculation about what it would be like had we taken different turns. It’s impossible to know.
Frost’s use of comparisons helps the reader to better interpret the meaning of this poem. The picture created, with his use of imagery allows the reader to view his work from various perspectives. His analogies are very pragmatic. The reader is able to relate to the speaker’s feelings. After reading this poem it gives the reader a sense of understanding why the speaker wished he could go back to his past so much.
strengthens his viewpoint and regards Frost as ―one of the most intuitive poets [. . . h]e sees
In this poem he now talks about water. The reader can see how powerful the water is when it eats away at the cliff. The shore was lucky by being backed by the cliff. Once again Frost is discussing water which goes back to stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by stating the water because there is water in this poem with snow Frost keeps bringing up water and snow.